Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons!

My mom and I stayed the night just five short miles from the actual eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park at the Pahaska Tepee Resort in the Wapiti Valley.  The Resort was also built by Cody, and it is a charming collection of well cared for rustic cabins.  When we checked in, we were given the standard bear warnings (which freaked my mom out) and told that there's been a bison on the property so we should beware.  We were also told, after asking, that there are plenty of moose around, and they could be seen right out front all day that day.  (yippeeeeee!)  Since it was late when we arrived, we passed right out so we could get an early start the next day for maximum time in Yellowstone.

From Dinosaurs to Cowboys...

Buffalo was a cute little city, but we were anxious to hit the road as we were going a little out of our way to check out hot springs and dinosaurs in Thermopolis before heading up to Cody (the eastern gate to Yellowstone!!).  Along the way, we got to drive through yet more beautiful state parks, so the scenery was nice:

Mt. Rushmore!!!!!!!

By the time we rolled into Chadron, it was pretty late, so we went straight to our hotel and basically passed out for the night.  But the next morning, we went back through town and hit up the Museum of the Fur Trade.  To be honest, we almost skipped it because we weren't sure it would be so awesome, but we didn't and boy were we glad!  It was a very cool museum, and we learned a lot about the early North American settlements and relations with Native Americans.  We ended up spending way more time there than we meant to, and did some shopping in the gift shop as well.

To the Midwest, James!

Even though my mom and I were kinda bummed to leave Chicago, we were excited for the things the awaited us on our journey!  Busting out my handy dandy travel book, we found lots of random little things to stop and see as we made our way west.  The first of which was a quick stop in Freeport, Ill. where we grabbed monster ice cream cones from the cutest old fashioned ice cream parlor/diner ever and scoped out the site of the famous Lincoln v. Douglas debate that took place in the area.  Encircling this park and the sort of funny statue of Lincoln and Douglas debating, there is a great chronology of the events surrounding the debate and election (for senate).

Chicago, The Windy City, Chi-Town!

I was SO excited for Chicago.  But before I delve into how much fun I had in the windy city, I should explain my road trip home a bit more.  My amazing, though worry-wart mamacita didn't want me to drive all the way home from New Hampshire by myself, so she offered to drive home with me.  However, my mom is a teacher and my return would be occurring after school began, which meant she couldn't take off more than a week of school.  The solution?  I would drive to Chicago by myself, she'd fly to Chicago to meet me, and we'd drive the rest of the way back to Cali together.  Hence the reason I had been driving solo through Canada, etc.  Even though I had originally planned to do this whole adventure by myself, I learned on my way out to NH with Katie how great it is to have a co-pilot to help with the driving and to have someone to chat with/share the fun of the adventure with, and this was solidified by my marathon solo drive.

Oh Canada!!

When I was originally plotting my trip back to California, my plan was to go through Pittsburgh,  PA because I have extended family in the area and I thought it would be fun to catch up with all those folks for a night.  Unfortunately, we couldn't locate some people and the ones we could locate where going to be on vacation when I was coming through town.  Boo.  But this is not a sad story because my Aunt Dee had been telling me all summer I should make a trip up to Canada to check out Montreal and other areas near the border.  Being the prepared traveler I am, I happened to have my passport with me, so voila, Montreal, here I come!  Take that Pittsburgh!

Adventures in New England

In early August, I actually flew home for my friend Kate's wedding (it was awesome and beautiful!), and shortly after I got back to New Hampshire, my mom and I set the dates for my return, giving me about one month left in my New England summer.  This spurred me to action and I felt the pressure to do all the things. First up, a trip to the White Mountain National Forest.

To The Nature!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: New Hampshire is SOOOOOOOOO pretty!  I really just enjoyed driving around because, again, there are forests everywhere, beautiful lakes off the side of the road, and cute towns around each curve of the road.  Clearly it's a great place to go if you want to get outside and enjoy the nature.  The White Mountain National Forest is a few hours north of Wolfeboro and easy to get to.  When I arrived, I stopped by the ranger station and the nicest lady showed me the "must sees" that would give me a great overview in just one afternoon of what the park has to offer.  She was not mistaken.  Here are some of the things I saw:

My Wolfeboro Summer

Despite the fact that I feel a bit like I'm cheating on Katie by deciding to continue this blog without her (I'm sorry Katie!  I love you!), I'm going to do it anyway.  Because you know what?  I'm not done traveling.  Nor am I done telling you about how much fun I've been having.  So take that...person that I am angrily addressing.  :)

Anyway, back to the point.  After Katers went back to Cali to take teacher classes, and after I recovered from what turned out to be strep throat, or something (after three weeks of dealing with a nagging sore throat, I finally went to the doctor where I paid $100+ in ER fees and got some meds to mend me), I was having a ball.  (Actually, I was still having fun even when I wasn't yet 100% better, because that's just the kind of girl I am!).  Anyway, aside from getting settled in Wolfeboro, my first order of business was to find. a. job.

We've Arrived!!!

Exhausted from a long (18 states in 20 days! yikes), fun trip, we finally wound our way to our final destination, beautiful Wolfeboro, New Hampshire!  Many moons ago, my Aunt Dee and Uncle Ralph said "peace out, California" and settled in NH, where they've been living ever since.  Their four kids/our cousins, Mary, Ralphie, Julie and Johnny all still live within an hour or so of Wolfeboro, which means we get to see our aunt/uncle, cousins, and their families whenever we're here!  YAAAY!!!

No sleep 'til...

The original plan for our trip was to stay just outside of New York City, but when we met this couple from Brooklyn in Charleston we decided to change our plans.  They told us about Park Slope (an up and coming section of Brooklyn) and we booked a hotel.  We didn't do much the first night because we got there kind of late, but the next morning we explored.

Civil War Reenactment, what!

So other than seeing Kitty Hawk, our goal for day #16 was really just to shoot up to Ashburn, Virginia so we could spend a delightful evening with my friends from high school, Lindsey and Mark Lesar, and their super cute 9-month old daughter Alyssa.  And that's exactly what we did.

The Outer Banks

When I read in our road trip guide that we could drive along these little tiny islands off the coast of North Carolina called the "Outer Banks," I was ridiculously excited.  I don't know why.  Maybe in part because the first island is only accessible by ferry (which I've never been on before and have always wanted to go on) or because when you look at the islands on a map, they look so little that it seemed like you'd be practically driving through the ocean.  Regardless of why I was excited, the really important thing is that, like so many things on our trip, the Outer Banks didn't disappoint.

Welcome to the Carolinas

(Technically this is from just as we crossed into North Carolina, but we missed the sign so deal with it)

Finally.  If I talked to you about the route we were taking before I left for this trip, I probably mentioned that I was excited to see the Carolina's.  Thanks to Pat Conroy's books Beach Music and South of Broad, I had a totally romantic vision of Charleston with its beautiful homes and amazing food.  It did not disappoint.

Why Hello East Coast!

After our strike-out in Montgomery, KR and I decided to head straight on through to Savannah, Georgia, instead of staying the night in Macon, GA, which was our original plan.  We figured we could get back on “schedule” once we made it to the East Coast.  Turns out, skipping Macon was a SUPER great idea, and we did, in fact, manage to get back on schedule pretty quickly, so it was all good.

All the Things are Closed on Sundays

After an evening of doing pretty much nothing except recuperating, Katie and I were feeling more human and were ready to hit the ground running...or, actually, driving. heh.

Big Time in the Big Easy

So Em left off after Jackson, MS and we started the journey to New Orleans aka the Big Easy.  We stayed in the French Quarter about three blocks from Bourbon Street.  If you haven't been to New Orleans, it's kind of gross, but really fun.  Bourbon Street is riddled with tourists, bars, and strippers.

Vicksburg - Red Carpet City of the South

After a good night's sleep in Vicksburg, we got up early and hit up the National Military Park.  Who knew (we didn't!) that Vicksburg was the "Gibralter of the Confederacy" because it was a seven week, horrible, bloody battle during the Civil War (like 20,000 men died, mostly on the Union side, even though the Union soldiers "won").  The Union forces and President Lincoln needed Vicksburg because it was the "nail head that [held] the South's two halves together...Vicksburg [was] the key."  By taking over Vicksburg, the north could divide the south and finalize control of the entire mighty Mississippi.  KR and I learned a whole bunch about the Civil War as we drove around the 16-mile military park loop and saw lots of original cannons, trenches, and even the USS Cairo ironclad paddlewheel battleship, which was sunk during the war, but has been cleaned up and put on display at the park.  Here are some pics:

We're In It Now...

By "it" I mean the south.  It was an interesting thing to notice going through Arizona and New Mexico to Texas because we kept hearing more and more southern accents.  It's probably a bigger deal to us than it should be, but us accent-less Californians have a finely tuned ear to accents (I declare that as fact).  So we finally made it to Dallas, but we didn't spend a whole lot of time there.

Carls-worst

Get excited to hear all about our trip through New Mexico, and most importantly, about Carlsbad, which I renamed CarlsWORST!

Conquering the Wild West!

After a good night’s rest, we got up in the morning excited to enjoy our space-sized breakfast and coffee!  The Best Western Space Age diner did not disappoint.  We had the best pancake breakfast ever and gigantic cups of coffee with “saucers” (get it? Sacuer? Space?  Pretty great!).  Energized and ready to hit the road, we left Gila Bend in search of The Thing, followed by Tombstone!

But first, we had to stop in Tucson to gas up and also because KR and I decided that we should get some food for our cooler so we could eat lunches on the fly.  We also thought it would be a good money saving technique/allow us to avoid eating “out” and/or fast food all the time.  When we asked Siri to help us locate a grocery store, we were thrilled to find that there was a local co-op, and we were even more thrilled when the surrounding blocks turned out to be like a little Arizona version of Berkeley.  It was great!  Needless to say, we stocked up on some fruit and veggies and fixins for pb&j sammies!  Other than those few blocks though, Tucson didn’t have too much to offer.  On to… THE THING!

Peace out, California!

Being the early birds that we are, Em and I finally hauled our tails out of Kate’s house by 9am on Friday.  We drove out of San Diego through the beautiful mountains on Historic 80 and made our first stop at the Desert View Tower.  The tower boasts a four-story view of the sprawling Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  As a side note, the tower had lots of “liberally biased” magnets and bumper stickers for sale, which I was beyond excited about.  Another side note, do not visit the tower if you are concerned about making sure your hair looks acceptable in public.

Pacific Coast: Check

By 8:30 a.m., Emily was out of her house in Pleasanton and on her way to pick up Katie at her house in Livermore.  That means we were out on the open road by 9 a.m., only an hour after our ETD (expected time of departure, duh!).  We felt like that was a pretty great start since there was just stuff that needed to be done yo!